


Undertale: Another story

by SpeechlessHermit



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Evil W. D. Gaster, Gen, Growth, Handplates, Papyrus Needs A Hug, Personal Growth, Scientist W. D. Gaster, handplates AU, zarla-s
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:54:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpeechlessHermit/pseuds/SpeechlessHermit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another successful day begins for Papyrus, until a dark, forgotten force decides to ruin not just his day, but also his future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day before: Sunday's changes

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

 

"Hey."

 

"Do you think anyone can be a good person?"

  
"That they just need someone to guide them?"

  
"That they can do it if they try?"

  
"..."

  
"I don't know anymore."

 

What a great day!

  
That was the first thought that occurred to Papyrus when he woke up this morning, as the town of Snowdin slowly woke up as well. Even after an entire millennium trapped underground, monster kind was still unused to the lack of sunlight. Life there was like a never-ending night. All monsters thought that way when they took a closer look at their daily lives.

  
But Papyrus was nothing like that. The naive, childish, kind and optimistic Papyrus, would never think such sad thoughts. And even if the subject was engaged in a conversation, he would consider it a very secondary problem, and would do his best to make others feel the same.

  
As he was fantasizing in front of his window about his future plans of riding a car and growing hair, his brother, Sans, entered his room.

  
"'Sup, bro?"

  
Papyrus was surprised to see his brother awake this early in the morning. He usually wakes up hours later, just to go to one of his sentry stations to sleep some more.  
"Sans! You actually woke up early!" he said. "Which isn't surprising, given how much you slept yesterday..."

  
"Eh, you know me." Sans muttered. "Plus today's Sunday, so I'm just gonna sleep all day." he added. "So uh, got any plans today?"

  
"Of course!" Papyrus replied. "I'm going to Undyne's house for my special warrior training! I just need a cool outfit..."

  
"Hey, don't worry 'bout it bro. Someone as cool as you doesn't need a cool outfit to be cool."

  
"Of course, Sans! Well then, I'll be on my way!"

  
As Papyrus was about to close the door behind him, he suddenly re-opened it again and said:

  
"And once I get back, you better have recalibrated your puzzles! Who knows when a human will come!"

  
"Ok, see ya later Pap."

  
A few blocks away from the siblings' residence (Snowdin was a small town, as it was barely bigger than a village.), some townsfolk were gossiping, and each person had a worried look in their eyes.

 

"Did you hear? Someone in Hotland just died..."

 

"Yeah, that weird epidemic... 

 

Papyrus, who was too far to hear any of what the gossipers just said, thought that it was normal for a small group of people to talk about their daily worries while making worried and intrigued facial expressions. As expected from someone as oblivious as Papyrus.

  
Papyrus continued walking to the Snowdin limits. The cold, windy corridor was Papyrus' favorite part of the town. He always dreamed of fighting a human in such a cool place. Though the battle screen would probably make all the wind and snow disappear, it would still look pretty cool in his imagination.

  
As he walked through the icy corridor, Papyrus noticed something lying on the snowy ground.

 

"Huh? What's this?" he asked himself.

  
Papyrus picked up the object and examined it more closely.

  
The object was shaped like a box. It was made of what looks like metal, but with a shade of pure white.

  
The right face of the box had a black needle that could be turned clockwise.

  
In other words, the object Papyrus was holding was a music box.

  
Out of sheer curiosity, Papyrus turned the mechanism and the box opened.

  
The music box didn't play any music. Instead, white noise was coming out of it.

  
The sound lasted for over twenty seconds, and then stopped.

  
...The music box stopped.

  
A device came out of it and fired a beam.

  
The beam hit Papyrus.

 

The beam hit Papyrus' left eye.

  
Papyrus screamed.

  
Papyrus screamed.

  
Screams.

  
Drowsiness.

  
Numbness.

  
Darkness.

 

 

Papyrus slowly regained consciousness. He tried to stand up, and was surprised at how difficult it was for him to perform such a simple task. When he was finally able to stand up, he noticed something strange.

  
His left eye socket was intact.

 

Papyrus was definitely sure he was hit by what looked like a laser beam in his eye, but it was in perfect shape. No scar, nothing.

  
As his attention slowly drifted away from his "supposed- to-be-injured" eye socket, Papyrus realized there was another problem.

  
The corridor was gone.

  
When he looked around, Papyrus noticed that the room he was in was in complete darkness, or so logic dictates. It felt more like the room was darkness itself.  
"Wh...Where am I...?" he said out loud.

  
"It worked. No surprise."

  
"Huh?"

  
Suddenly, someone appeared out of nowhere, as if he left the darkness to meet Papyrus.

  
The person was a skeleton, just like Sans and Papyrus. But he had two distant cracks on his skull, and was wearing a black coat. Although Papyrus felt like the black "coat" the man in front of him was wearing looked more like it was his actual body. Another fact that supported this thought was that Papyrus couldn't even see that person's feet. If the room had no light, then how he can see this person in front of him?

 

But the most troubling thing about his man, a feature that for some reason instilled fear within Papyrus...

  
It was his voice.

  
It was this recognizable, incomprehensible, all too familiar voice Papyrus and Sans used to speak in every time they got bored.  
But that wasn't what Papyrus was scared of.

  
No, it was this man.

  
It was how familiar it felt for this man to speak this way.

  
"Who...Who are you?" Papyrus finally asked.

  
He was too scared to say anything else. It felt like his worst nightmares had fused together into this person, this complete stranger(?), and became true.  
Just why did he feel that way towards him?

  
"Come now, have you really forgotten me?" the man then asked.

  
Papyrus didn't realize it until now, but the man was smiling all this time.

  
"Maybe this will help."  
Before he realized it, Papyrus was trapped in some kind of whirlpool that formed out of nowhere around him, and then...

  
Pain. That was all he could feel.

  
What seemed like five seconds of intense pain was like eternal suffering for Papyrus.  
Memories. Painful, undesired memories, were remembered. 

  
And within those memories was the identity of this mysterious man.

  
"No..." Papyrus cried. "It can't be real..."

  
"Now you remember."

  
Papyrus could no longer speak. His state of shock wouldn't allow it.

  
Yes, the person standing in front of him...

  
...was his creator.

  
He and his brother were made by him.

  
He could tell, because the bad memories told him so.

  
And his name was...

  
"I am Wingdings Gaster. Your creator."

  
"W-Why..." Papyrus stuttered. "Why are you..."

  
Gaster's grin enlarged even further.

  
"I won't bother myself to explain to you why I am still alive, and you know why?"

 

"I'm going to destroy this timeline."

  
Papyrus couldn't hold back his tears anymore.

  
"Once I drain all of this world's energy, I will create another one, where I'll be "real" again."

  
"R-Real...? What are you talking about?!" Papyrus screamed. "Please, please just stop what you're doing!"

  
He could perfectly remember how Gaster experimented on he and his brother. He knew he was capable of inflicting the same pain to anyone else.

  
"Everyone will die, right?! I don't know what you want or what is objective, but..."

  
Papyrus knew this wasn't going to work. But he had to try to reason with him one last time. It had to work.

  
"Please, there must a solution. There always is. We can find one together..."

  
Gaster's grin was gone, then he smiled again a second later.

  
"Heh..." he sighed. "Even a hundred timelines won't cure your stupidity."

 

"Only a fool would want to save me."

  
Darkness.

 

Papyrus woke up in his room, and before he could even realize anything, Sans startled him:

  
"Papyrus! Oh god, you're finally awake..."

  
"Huh...? S-Sans?" Papyrus asked, bewildered. "Ow!" he then yelped.

  
"Hey, take it easy, You're injured."

  
At Sans' words, Papyrus reflexively put his hand on his left eye and was shocked when instead of feeling his skull, he felt the soft touch of a freshly applied band-aid.  
"Everyone in town did their best to heal you. They said you were gonna be alright." Sans added.

  
Papyrus wasn't thinking about that right now. What mattered most right now to him was Gaster.

  
"But more importantly, what happened to you? Undyne saw you at the ends of snowdin, covered in blood..."

  
Was it really a dream. No, it couldn't have. It wouldn't explain why the music box shot a laser beam right into his...

  
"Papyrus? Are you listening?"

 

"Huh? Oh sorry, I didn't hear you..."

  
Sans took a closer look to Papyrus. It was clear to him Papyrus was troubled with something. But at the same time, he was worried about his brother's health.  
"I think you should just rest for today. I'll save my questions for tomorrow. I'll sleep next to you tonight."

  
"...Thanks Sans." said Papyrus. After what just happened, he could really use Sans' support.

  
Sans said he was going to ask him a few questions about what just happened. Papyrus decided to tell Sans everything.

  
After all, he may have discovered the truth behind their hand plates.

 

 

"..."

  
"Hey..."

"Wake up..."

"You're hurt..."

  
"I guess you can't go very far in this state..."

"Tomorrow, once you'll feel better..."

"Follow my voice."

"I'll help you save them."

 


	2. Day 1: Monday's trial: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confused, afraid, and one-eye blind, Papyrus follows a mysterious voice that offers him help and tells him he's the only one who can save the timeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

What was that weird dream?

Papyrus was definitively sure he heard a voice talking to him during his sleep. Was he starting to become delirious? 

"Hggggngh... Good morning, Pap. Feeling any better?"

Sans woke up shortly after Papyrus did. Due to his injury and after everything that happened, it was only natural he would wake up in the late morning.

"Good morning Sans. Yes, I'm already feeling better."

It didn't hurt anymore, but he still felt more tired than usual.

"Good, I'll remove the bandage now." 

"Okay." Papyrus replied, as Sans started to carefully remove the bandage.

Thanks to the medical care Papyrus went through yesterday while he was unconscious, in addition the healing properties the bandage had (They had to infuse it with healing magic), he didn't look any different from yesterday morning, before any of this happened, but...

"I...I think the eye's gone for good. I can't see anything with it."

Sans started to get seriously worried, if Papyrus was truly blinded of an eye, then...

"There's only one way to find out. Try glowing your eyes."

Papyrus obediently executed the command, and...

Only his right eye was glowing.

"Damn it..." Sans muttered. "How could this happen..."

Papyrus was feeling numb. He was barely listening to Sans and was too tired to do so anyway. It was the first time he felt like that. But more importantly, he had to tell Sans what he saw during his coma.

"Hey, Sans..."

"Can you hear me?"

That voice! It was the same one that Papyrus heard in his sleep! 

"It looks like you're feeling better now."

"What is it, Papyrus? Do you need something?"

"You're the only hope of this timeline."

The only hope? What was that voice talking about? Papyrus was starting to think he really did snap.

"...Papyrus? Are you okay?"

"Follow my voice. I'll help you save everyone."

"...I'm going to go take a walk. Don't worry, it won't be long."

"A walk? Right now? Papyrus, you're hurt..."

"It doesn't hurt anymore. I'll be back soon, don't worry."

Sans really didn't want to let Papyrus go, but decided to let him do that anyway.

"...Alright, but be back soon, okay? And bring your cell phone with you."

"Got it. I'll see you later." 

As soon as Papyrus exited the house, the mysterious voice talked to him again and said:

"I am outside Snowdin. Head east until I tell you to stop."

"Head east". It seems Papyrus was told to go the opposite way he went yesterday. Instead of taking the way to Waterfall, he would have to take the route he uses to head to his sentry station. He felt relieved he didn't have to go THERE.

On his way, Papyrus noticed something strange about his mailbox. Could it be that someone sent him a letter?

Papyrus opened his mailbox, and inside...

The box was filled with letters and boxes, with some of the boxes having notes such as "Get better soon!", or "Hang in there, we're all here for you!".

Realizing the quantity of boxes and letters that were inside his mailbox, Papyrus couldn't help but feel happy and thankful to those who took the time to give him presents and letters of encouragement.

His mood also got better when the townsfolk kept asking Papyrus if he was alright and if he needed anything.

"The only hope of this timeline", huh? It that was true then he would gladly accept his role and do his best to protect everyone.

Papyrus left Snowdin and kept heading east, until the voice spoke to him again and said:

"Stop. Now, go to the southern room. Once you find a cavern, head inside. I'm waiting for you here."

The southern room? Maybe they mean the room where Gyftrot lives, thought Papyrus. He does recall a cavern at the end of the room. He'll soon meet his caller.  
But before he reached the cave, Papyrus started to get scared.

There was a problem. There was definitively a problem. There's no way there could be a mysterious caller that would help him save everyone. What if it was a trap? What if...

...

Despite all of that, Papyrus still felt like he had to enter the cave. He didn't know why, but the voice he heard back there felt...right. 

Without any hesitation, Papyrus braced himself, and with all the determination he had, entered the dark, fear-instilling, and annoying(?) cave.


	3. Day 1: Monday's trial: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus left Snowdin to follow a mysterious voice that guided him to the cave that lies near the forest. Inside the cave is waiting for him an unexpected character.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

"Good. You came."

When Papyrus entered the cave, the first thing he saw was the person in front of him, standing in front of the door. It was his caller. And judging from their voice and their appearance, Papyrus figured out they were female.

The caller was tall, around the same height as Papyrus. She wore a grey hoodie and a mask . But somehow, that mask was hiding more than just her face, Papyrus couldn't even figure out what kind of monster she was.

Well, if she WAS a monster.

Papyrus was on the defensive, but somehow, seeing this character made him a little less tense. Not because she didn't seem hostile, but it seemed like she was letting out an aura that calmed him down. An aura that somehow, convinced him that she didn't mean any harm towards him.

"Where... you the one calling me?" Papyrus finally asked. It seemed like the aura's presence was not enough to completely calm him down.

"...Yes." the caller answered. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions in your mind, but let me clear out some doubts you were having."

Papyrus shivered. He knew what she was talking about. Though the "doubts" she mentioned felt more to Papyrus like unwanted truths. 

"That person you saw during your coma, Dr. W.D. Gaster, is real."

At that moment, Papyrus felt like his soul shattered again after just recently being brought back into one piece. Of course ,he expected this answer, but he hoped from the bottom of his heart that it was all fake. Nevertheless, he had to stay strong,.

Just like back then.

"Are you aware of his plans for this world?" the caller then asked.

"...He wants to... destroy the world, but that can't be true, right...?" Papyrus replied, as his voice shivered a little. He forgot to try to hide his fear of this situation.

"Not THE world, THIS world." 

"...What?" Papyrus replied, confused.

"Time doesn't flow one way. The "world" Gaster mentioned was this timeline. You know what a timeline is, right?  
"  
"Uh, yeah, I guess.." Papyrus replied. "But, why?"

"Ask yourself this question: How come neither you or your brother have any memory of someone who tortured you and kept you hidden from the world?"

Now that she mentioned it, Papyrus found it very odd. How come he or Sans even forget an experience this mind-shattering? At the very least they should be suffering from PTSD.

Actually, he should be grateful to have forgotten every bit of this very mind-shattering experience, is what Papyrus thought soon after the PTSD thing he was pondering about.

"Yeah, how?" Papyrus finally asked.

"First off, let me explain who is W.D. Gaster." The caller then took a deep breath and started explaining: "W.D. Gaster was the royal scientist, right before Dr. Alphys. His genius brought him quite a reputation in the scientific domain, and he's the one who created the core, located at the end of Hotland."

"Wait, HE created the core? How come no one ever mentions him?" Papyrus interrupted.

"We'll get to that." the caller briefly replied. "Soon after, he decided to work on a project to free monster kind from the Underground, and that's how he came up with you two. Creating artificial life forms from the determination of human souls and parts of a monster's body. In this case, he was the monster to get body parts removed from, and the body parts in question where his hands."

"Then, those holes in both his hands..."

"Yes, that was your "fetus" form. Of course, as you remember, he conducted this project in secret, and hid the two of you in the true lab, a secret lab that only the royal scientist has access to. As for what he did after that, I'm sure you already know the answer to that. "

Papyrus carefully listened to every single one of her words in order to grasp the meaning of this situation since so far, this story has proved to be quite confusing and difficult to grasp without proper attention to the words. 

"A project to free monster kind."

Those words were oddly familiar to him, and brought back other familiar words, but clearly Papyrus really didn't want to remember another painful memory like this, and instead decided to let the mysterious caller continue her speech.

But still...

"And so began your daily lives as test subjects. I'm sure that despite being able to remember the most important part, you still have some memory lags, but I'd rather not fill those up, so let's just skip all the way to the end."

Papyrus agreed. There really was no need to remember anything painful, especially with his current mental state. 

"Six months have passed since then, and one day , your brother, Sans, suddenly attacked Gaster and both of them got into a fight. You wanted to stop them, but you were the test subject that day, so you were tied up and there was nothing you could do." rapidly added the caller, after seeing Papyrus' reaction. "And during the fight, Gaster accidentally teleported both Sans and himself inside the core. Sans took advantage of his confusion to push him so he could fall into it. And he did. As he fell, his soul and body was scattered into time and space, and now resides in the void. Now you know why he was never mentioned in anything. Because his existence is bound to the void, everyone forgot all about him."

Papyrus has listened carefully to every word of the story, and there are still some things that he didn't understand yet.

"So, if his existence is bound to the void, how come he made the music box that destroyed my eye?" Papyrus asked.

"That's an interesting question." the caller replied. "He may have disappeared from existence, but there are still proofs that can testify his existence, like the core and you two. These little attachments to reality gave him strength, strength to create a deadly virus that's currently spreading throughout the entire Underground. Many monsters have already fallen."

Papyrus' expression quickly changed from depression to horror. All these innocent people, dying one by one, each one of them desperately clinging to life in their dying bed, while he's just wasting time, talking to a random stranger that used telepathy to lure him in this cave.

"That's horrible! There has to be something we can do, right?!" Papyrus clearly started to panic.

"Of course. Which is why I called you here." the caller calmly replied. "Before he was able to create the music box, Gaster had to rely only on his virus. At first, it was just a dumb cold, then as he gained power, it evolved into the lethal virus we have right now. And with the new amount of energy he accumulated, he was able to create the music bow that blinded you."

"But...why? Why did he go through the trouble of doing that?" 

The caller slowly turned to face Papyrus and said:

"Do you have any idea how strong he got ever since you remembered him?"

"...Huh?"

"Now that you remember him, you, a living proof of his existence, he gained more power than ever."

"No...way...." Papyrus stuttered. "So...I-It's my... fault?"

The idea of being the primary asset of someone who wants to destroy an entire timeline isn't something Papyrus could be proud of himself for.  
But if it was his fault, then... 

What was the obvious thing to do?

"...We have to stop him." Papyrus said, after regaining his calm. "It's my fault, so the responsibility falls on me." 

Even with the mask completely covering her face, Papyrus could tell the caller was satisfied.

"Don't worry," the caller then said. "You won't be alone. Didn't I say I was going to help you?"

"Really? You will?" Papyrus asked.

"Of course. You can't help everyone alone can you? You don't even know how to get to him."

"I... That's right... Thank you." Papyrus replied, this time smiling. Finally, he found a glimmer of hope behind these clouds of despair.

At long last, Papyrus was finally able to smile like usual, before any of this ever happened. He was even starting to feel optimistic about all of this. "Maybe this time he'll listen." 

"Maybe this time, it'll work out."

"No, I have to win! If I fail, I won't be the only one who's gonna lose everything!"

With all this new found hope, Papyrus forgot to ask something important.

"Oh, that's right! I didn't ask what your name was! What's your name?"

"... My name's Zarla. My pleasure." Again, despite her mask hiding all of her face, it seemed like she was smiling. "Just what's that mask even for?" thought Papyrus. Though it was true he couldn't recognize a single facial feature.

"But wait," started Papyrus. "If everyone forgot about Gaster, how come you didn't?"

"I'm... special." answered Zarla. "Well then, follow me."

Right after saying that, she turned around to face a door, that was at the back of the cave. Not even a second later, the door suddenly opened.

"Whoa..." Papyrus couldn't help but let that one out. He was shocked that the mysterious locked creepy door (That's what the kids in Snowdin called it) would open using so little effort.  
"After you." said Zarla, while calmly beckoned Papyrus to enter.

Papyrus obediently followed her to the next room.

The room behind the cave's doors was beautiful. The ceiling, the walls, even the floor, were all pure white. Chandeliers were decorated on the walls and were giving a subtle, yet calming light.

But what really made the room so special was the water fountain at the center. It also had a white color, but the water that came out of it wasn't actually water, but magic in its purest form.

Papyrus was never this amazed before in his entire life. To him, this room's beauty was quite breath-taking.

"Pretty cool, right?" Papyrus was so absorbed by such a godly view that he completely forgot why he was here in the first place. He let out an exclamation.

"Believe it or not, this fountain will be our transportation method to the void." explained Zarla.

"Okay but, how do we use it?" asked Papyrus.

"All you have to do is touch the fountain, think "I want to go to the void." and concentrate. That's all there is to it."

"Oh, it's that simple? Okay..."

Papyrus gently touched the fountain, and...

Hesitated.

"Hey, um..." started Papyrus. "Do I have to go... alone?" 

"Don't worry, I have other ways to go in and out of the void. I'll meet you there." 

"Oh, o-okay... Here goes."

Papyrus tightened his grip to the fountain, and closed his eyes.

"I want to go to the void."

Darkness.

Numbness.

...

Pain. Slight pain.

Papyrus slowly opened his eyes, and...

"Welcome to the void, Papyrus. Your adventure starts here."


	4. Day 1: Monday's trial: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus learns the horrifying truth behind Gaster's plans, and is now headed to the Void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

"Welcome to the void, Papyrus. Your adventure starts here."

Papyrus came to his senses. He opened his eyes right in the middle of her sentence, and saw what the void looked like for the first (And probably last) time.

"Whoa... so this is the void, huh?" Papyrus muttered.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" started Zarla. "I think it'd be best for you to get a clear idea of where you are, so go take a look at everything before I start explaining what you need to do."  
Papyrus nodded. He too, wanted to examine his whereabouts. 

The room he teleported into had the same characteristics as the room he met Gaster the day before. It was completely dark, there was no source of light, yet he could still perfectly see inside it. It was as if the contents of the room "were" the light source.

Well, it could've hardly been called a room. 

To be precise, Papyrus (And Zarla?) teleported into a large floating surface that had a floor made out of what looked like wood. Small white pillars were circling it from the edges to form a barrier. 

But the most intriguing, most interesting part of that "room" were the doors.

Seven perfectly aligned doors were occupying the upper part of the floating surface. They looked like they belonged to a palace, or a castle of some sort. Each one of them had weird symbols on each top of the doors. Each symbol was different, but Papyrus recognized them from somewhere. Didn't he see the same symbols in one of Sans' Sci-fi books?

"Those symbols on the doors... are those planet symbols?" Papyrus asked.

"That's right. But don't bother asking me why they're here in the first place, even I don't know." replied Zarla.

Papyrus had a sharp memory, so he could tell which symbol corresponded to which planet. Also, each door had a vivid color dominating its edges, and the color of some of the doors helped him remember correctly each symbol's corresponding planet. And to help him cheer up a little, Papyrus named each door to its planet. He did it for fun, since he perfectly knew positive words such as this one were quite uncommon in a place like this.

The first door from the bottom left was the Mercury door. It's dominating color was light blue, and it didn't feel so threatening. Papyrus felt at ease, for some reason. As if what was waiting for him behind this door was his usual warrior training with Undyne.

The second door next to it was the Mars door. It's dominating color was red, and Papyrus didn't feel as calm as when he was glancing at the Mercury door, but instead felt a sense of responsibility, like a burning passion to complete his task. If he wanted to save everyone, he'll need to face a good challenge first, to get a taste of what was really waiting for him.

The third door was the Jupiter door. It's dominating color was green. This door was definitively NOT as welcoming as the two past doors. Papyrus felt like this door was going to be a big problem soon.

Moving on next was the middle door, but Papyrus decided to leave this one for the end. He didn't know why, but the moment he laid his eye-sockets on this door, despair started taking over, obliging him to skip this door and move on to the next one.

The fifth door was the Venus door. It's dominating color was clear orange, close to yellow. Despite thinking there was nothing wrong with it, Papyrus couldn't help but feel there was something terribly wrong with it.

The sixth door was the Pluto door. It's dominating color was a grey-like shade of green. Papyrus felt like this door was... oddly mysterious. And awfully dangerous.  
The seventh and last door was the Saturn door. It's dominating color was a grey-like shade of purple. Papyrus felt like death itself was waiting for him behind that door. Whatever was behind it, it was eagerly waiting to crush his soul. 

And finally... Despair door.

Papyrus couldn't think of another name that fits better for the black door in the middle. Unlike the other doors, it only had one color: Black. Pure black. All the other doors had at least three different colors. Another fact that made this door different was its numerous locks. Exactly six locks were scattered all over it. Six locks, six other doors... were the locks connected to the rest of the doors? Papyrus had no way to know yet. The next thing that caught his attention was the door's symbol. 

It didn't have one.

Or rather, instead of a planet symbol, it had a crescent moon. A waxing crescent moon, to be exact. Papyrus wasn't sure, since he'd never seen the moon in the first place.  
But either way, there was something more to this door than a completely different symbol, and Papyrus couldn't seem to put his finger into it. Something was sure though, was that every time he either glanced or even got close to it, he became completely devoid of hope, and every time, this horrible, disgusting feeling would fade away after he'd looked away or stepped back a few inches. That feeling... it felt like...

Papyrus felt like his worst nightmare was waiting for him behind that door. 

"You feel something special towards that door, right?"

Papyrus was caught off-guard. He was so absorbed by this door that he completely forgot about Zarla.

"...I'm right, aren't I?"

"Y-Yeah, I... do feel like something's off."

That wasn't just it. Papyrus felt more than just fear and sadness. Suddenly, he figured it out.

"It felt... familiar."

Papyrus stopped. Right after finishing his sentence, he knew exactly what that meant.

"He's here... he's behind that door... right?"

The room fell silent for a while.

"Isn't it obvious?" answered Zarla finally.

"So... he's out there, huh?" said Papyrus in a low voice, as if he was talking to himself.

Papyrus examined once again the door's locks. So what now?

"I guess now is a good time for me to explain your job, don't you think so?" Zarla said, interrupting Papyrus' stream of thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm ready."

No turning back now.

"We've successfully been able to teleport to this special segment of the void, where Gaster resides. But we still haven't reached him yet. The door that leads to him is sealed, so we have to get rid of the locks around it first. As you've probably already guessed, the key to getting rid of these locks has something to do with the other doors."

Bingo. Papyrus nodded, as a sign of affirmation.

"When you were looking at those doors, you felt something, haven't you?"

"Is there an explanation to this?"

"Of course. You must've felt an aura of safety towards some doors, and an aura of hostility towards other doors. The intensity of those feelings also varied from a door to another, am I wrong?"

"No, that's exactly how I felt. What does it mean?"

Zarla paused for a second. The next part was going to be a little tricky for Papyrus to understand.

"Those feelings, they translate to you the hostility of the dungeons that lie behind them."

"Wait, dungeons? Behind those doors are... dungeons?" Papyrus said, with a confused look. 

"Yes, and I forgot to mention..." started Zarla. "Gaster has made followers during his time in the void. So..."

"He has followers?!" interrupted Papyrus. "How?! Who could possibly agree to something like this...? And I thought he was forgotten by everyone, right? How come they remember him and still agree to this...?"

"You don't understand. His followers are also in the void."

"W-What...? So he's not... the only one?"

"Of course he isn't. So many were trapped in the void for so long. It's only natural they'd react that way when they see an opportunity to come back to reality. To them, Gaster is their hope. "

"So... they're doing this out of desperation..." muttered Papyrus.

"That's right. They're desperate to leave this cursed place, so they locked themselves inside the dungeons. From their point of view, anyone or anything that stand in his way should be mercilessly exterminated. Including you."

"Huh?!"

Papyrus was shocked. If that's the case, then...

"Wh-What am I going to do? Am I gonna have to fight?!"

"Precisely. If you don't attack, they'll gladly see you dead."

"But... I don't have to... kill them... right?" muttered Papyrus.

"Rest assured. You can't kill them, even if you wanted to."

"Wait, really? How come?" Papyrus said, in a calmer voice.

"The void residents aren't even alive to begin with. If you enter a fight with them, you'll notice that their HP gauge is blank. If their HP runs out, they... disappear."  
"Disappear? isn't that the same as... dying?"

"Not in this case. All you need to know is that killing- I mean, defeating them won't give you an EXP."

Papyrus was suspicious. The word just spilled out of her tongue, but... she was trying to help him, so maybe it was true.

"...Alright. I understand. Anything else?"

"One more thing: your gear."

"My... gear? What are you talking about?"

"I told you were going to fight, right? Do you have any kind of weapon or armor to defend yourself?"

"Um... well..."

Papyrus didn't know what to answer. Was his favorite shirt considered a decent piece of armor? As for a weapon, he can summon one. But that's probably not what Zarla's talking about.

"I don't have a weapon... or any kind of armor. Is... that okay?" Papyrus said, hesitant.

Papyrus couldn't tell, but he was pretty she was smiling at his response. It was that arrogant kind of smile, like she knew he didn't (And wouldn't) bring anything for self-defense and she was going to use that to her advantage.

"No gear, huh? That's a shame. Luckily, I can get you some weapons and armor if you want."

"Really? That's amazing! Where can we find them?"

Papyrus was so relieved that he didn't notice that Zarla's grin became larger.

"I already found them, and I can give them to you right away, but there's a little problem."

"Oh come on! Why must there always be a problem after another?!" Papyrus said. He'd finally got used to constantly hearing bad news. So much that instead of feeling hopeless, he would now feel irritated.

Always grinning in the same arrogant fashion, Zarla continued.

"Don't worry, it's not really a big deal, it's just... you're gonna have to pay for them."

"What?"

Zarla's grin slowly wore off. She needed to look more serious. 

"You're gonna have to buy your equipment from me."

"...What?"

Papyrus was stunned. He had to... pay money in order to save the world?! He wasn't even irritated. He was too surprised by the stupidity of the current situation to be anything but stunned.

Before Papyrus could even fuel up the will to talk, Zarla decided to start talking by asking:

"So, how much gold you have?"

It took a while for Papyrus to realize that she was serious, so after regaining his posture, he finally answered:

"Um... over 150 gold."

"Okay... with 150 gold, I can give you... these!"

Zarla took out of nowhere a large knife and a... sweater? Does that mean his shirt was actually considered a piece of armor?

"They're not much, but they're the best choice for a good start."

Papyrus nodded in response and decided to CHECK his new equipment's INFO:

*Anime Knife: ATK 5. The friend of all Yandere/Psychopath Shoujo girls! 

*Tough Sweater: DEF 5. A worn-out sweater that provides better defense.

It wasn't much, but it was still better than a normal bone (ATK 2) and a dark blue shirt (DEF 2).

"All geared up?" Zarla asked, followed by Papyrus answering: "Yeah, I'm ready!"

"Good. Now, we can finally proceed to the exiting part."

Papyrus quietly nodded. "It's going to start soon..."

"Now that you're properly equipped, it's finally time to open one of the doors.

Papyrus gulped his own saliva. "Calm down... You'll be fine..." 

"Obviously, we're going to start with the first door to the left. The one with cyan blue."

Papyrus started sweating nervously. "Mercury door? It's okay, it's perfect. Easy way to start..."

"Are you ready? Don't worry, I'll be supporting you if you need help, so everything is going to be alright."

Papyrus calmed down.

"...I'm ready. Let's do this."

Quietly, he headed towards the Mercury door and gently, gently turned the doorknob, and opened the door.

* ENTERING MERCURY DUNGEON.


	5. Day 1: Monday's trial: Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another successful day begins for Papyrus, until a dark, forgotten force decides to ruin not just his day, but also his future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

Papyrus slowly regained consciousness. As he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he was alone. That's right... he opened the Mercury door and then suddenly... he wasn't in the room with the doors anymore.

 

"The... room with the dungeons?"

 

"Room-with-the-doors... no. Teleportation room? No that's dumb. Dungeon selection room? Too long. Dungeon room? Dungeon selection? Gaster room?"

 

Papyrus was perfectly aware that now wasn't a good time to come up with a name for the Void Core ("Yes! Excellent!"), but he couldn't help but waste his time and let himself be distracted in hostile area where he had no clue of his surroundings, since he kept thinking about it while he was still in a crouching position, head facing the ground. It was risky and dangerous, but as he would probably say: "You can't spell "Risky" or "Danger" without at least one or two letters of my name!" and naturally, as Sans would probably say to justify similar actions: "Leaving an important room without a name is not a very Papyrus thing to do."

 

Now that the most important problem has been solved, Papyrus finally stood up and looked around.

 

He was now in the Mercury dungeon. The easiest, least scariest, with the most vulnerable enemies lurking inside. It's architecture resembled a castle's, though it was in ruins. Just like the ruins back home. Except he'd never seen the ruins in his life, and only learned of its existence through textbooks and testimonies from a mysterious monster who lives there, and who Sans talks to a lot through the ruins' door. Papyrus felt at ease.

 

But it didn't last long.

 

Papyrus suddenly heard screeching from far away. Quickly, he brandished his knife and stood on his guard. Terrible cooking wasn't the only thing he learned from Undyne. The horrible sounds echoed and became closer, then stopped.

 

Papyrus didn't flinch. Danger can be either silent, invisible, or both. At least that's what Undyne taught him, before she transformed their training sessions into cooking lessons. Everyone (Including Undyne, after their first lesson) was perfectly aware of which one was better, but decided that it was best for Papyrus, even if it meant being constantly aware that there's a risk of food-poisoning.

 

Papyrus kept his guard up until, instants later...

 

Two monsters appeared out of nowhere.

 

The room turned completely dark.

 

Papyrus' soul blinked three times.

 

The battle screen appeared.

 

It happened all so suddenly, but Papyrus was still able to figure out what just happened. Good thing he was cautious all this time. A preemptive strike from the enemy (And on his first battle too) would be problematic. Papyrus carefully examined his opponents and wanted to make sure...

 

...

 

Both monsters(?) were completely grey, with some shades of white and black. The first one on the left resembled a large snake, but only with the head, smiling, and it was like his was permanently stuck on the ground, despite appearing just now. The other one was quite similar, except he had what looked like tentacles that have mutated in an unnatural way.

 

Next up were their stats. The snake-head one's name was "Void resident ☿ I". Papyrus recognized the sign: It was the same sign that was on the Mercury door. Another peculiar fact was that his cohort had the exact same name, despite being different. Did Gaster assign ranks to his followers? They even had the same stats: 4 ATK; 0 DEF. But putting aside these unnatural similarities, Papyrus felt discouraged: He couldn't find any other option other then "Check" in the "ACT" menu. Quickly, he selected the "MERCY" menu, hoping to find what he was looking for...

 

"Escape". Nothing else.

 

They can't be spared.

 

FIGHTing was his only option.

 

Papyrus' hands started shaking. "They'll be fine, right?"

 

 Trembling, but decided, Papyrus selected the "FIGHT" menu and there another surprise was waiting for him.

 

Two new options, "Attack" and "Magic", were shown in front of him. Papyrus was confused, but then concluded that since he was in a different world, there would be different rules. Papyrus thought it would be a good idea to check out the "Magic" option, and here's what he found:

 

* Bones:  LV 1 - LV 2

 

* G.Blaster:  LV 1 -

 

* Blue Attack:  LV 1 -

 

* Heal:  LV 1 - LV 2 -

 

Papyrus was starting to get the hang of it. The "Magic" option displayed his spells, and the "LV" marked his spells' strength which he was free to control, meaning that he can choose each spell's intensity.

 

Another fact was that above his spell chart was a large blue-colored gauge, very similar to his HP gauge, which was yellow. Papyrus thought: "Maybe this gauge tells me how much magic I can use until I'm worn out...". And he was right.

 

Papyrus didn't want to waste energy in his first fight, but he didn't want to use his weapon either.

 

Well, not that he had a choice.

 

Papyrus, holding his knife tightly, slowly reached for the "Attack" option, and he chose Snake-head first.

 

The timing gauge appeared.

 

Papyrus gathered his strength, waiting for the right moment to strike.

 

The bar reached the gauge's critical zone.

 

Papyrus focused. Time seemed to have slowed down for him.

 

Papyrus attacked!

 

 Critical! The enemy received 129 points of damage!

 

Papyrus looked up, and saw his opponent's HP gauge completely empty, and to his surprise, the creature didn't turn to dust, but faded away instead. Just like Zarla said. Papyrus panicked for a second...

 

Then stopped.

 

He then realized something:

 

He didn't feel anything. No guilt, no remorse.

 

He felt... just the same. Nothing changed.

 

Putting his feelings aside, it was now Tentacle-person's turn. Luckily for Papyrus, he wasn't fighting a human, so he had the freedom to dodge attacks. But since he's not human either, his opponents can dodge his attacks too, except it's harder when he attacks with his weapon.

 

Having successfully (And gracefully, from his point of view) dodged all the bullets, he attacked one more time with his knife and felled the monster with another critical strike.

 

He won.

 

* YOUWON!

 

* You earned 25 experience points and 30 gold.

 

The room regained its light.

 

Papyrus loosened his grip on the knife. Somehow, he felt relieved.

 

He really didn't kill anyone.

 

 But something seemed strange. Since when did he have a "Magic" gauge, or a "Magic" option at all?

Experience points weren't that new, but can he... "Level up"?

 

Did his "Menu" screen also change?

 

Papyrus opened it, and selected the "STAT" option, and there he saw it:

 

"PAPYRUS"

 

LV 1 ; Lv 5

 

HP 680/680 ; MP 500/500

 

AT  8 (5)          EXP: 0 ; Exp: 225

 

DF  2 (5)          NEXT: 10 ; Next: 75

 

WEAPON: Anime Knife

 

ARMOR: Tough Sweater

 

GOLD: 30

 

It seemed that new features have been added to his personal "Menu" screen. Was it really just because he was in the Void? And what's with this "Lv" thing? He knew "LV" stands for "LOVE", but "Lv"? That was new. "I'm sure Zarla will give me an explanation for this. She knows so much about this void stuff..."

 

Leaving the thinking problems for later, Papyrus decided to march and find his way out. Right after he walked a few steps forward to a corridor, he realized something:

 

He was sent in this dungeon without a clue of what he had to do.

 

Papyrus was still relaxed. All he had to do was ask Zarla for help. "I'm sure she's waiting for me in the next room...". Papyrus proceeded forward and...

 

No one was there.

 

"It's okay, she must be in another place then, she must be close, right?"

 

A few minutes later, after progressing forward a little bit, and exploring all the rooms (And one quick battle), there was still no sign of her.

 

"She must be watching over me, then! I'm sure she's hiding somewhere, looking out for me, right? She said she would support me, so she clearly is somewhere with me, right?" Papyrus wasn't sure whether he meant those words.

 

"No, I'm sure she's here. She wouldn't leave me alone. I should believe in her." And thus with those words, he continued his exploration.

 

In the Mercury dungeon, it was impossible to get lost. Paths would either lead to a dead end or to a new way forward. Sometimes in these dead ends, Papyrus would find boxes that contained useful things, such as healing items (At Papyrus' surprise, there were potions instead of food). Although these items weren't very effective, it was still better than nothing. His healing spells were completely useless, since he was alone in battle.

 

Battles were quite frequent. And despite fighting against weak enemies, Papyrus can't dodge forever. Luckily, he found his first healing item before long, and thus was able to continue his journey without any difficulties.

 

It seemed like fifteen minutes have passed since Papyrus' arrival, and was able to find five healing potions from various boxes, and has gone through four battles already (He once encountered stronger enemies with "II" instead of "I" in their names.) . And yet, Zarla was still nowhere to be found. In the meantime, Papyrus was trying to figure out what was his objective, and thanks to the dungeon's architecture, concluded the following:

 

"This dungeon... every time I meet a crossroad, one leads to a dead-end, and the other is the right path to proceed. Maybe, just maybe... "

 

"At the end of this dungeon, there's something for me to do there. And near the end..."

 

"She's waiting for me."

 

As Papyrus was anxiously looking for an answer behind his current situation, another follower appeared out of nowhere and attacked him. Papyrus prepared himself for combat.

 

 When he opened his fight menu and tried to select his enemy, he noticed something different. His name wasn't "Void resident ☿ I" or even "II", but "Void resident ☿ III". Papyrus thought it was strange, and decided to "Check" the new foe, and his doubt was confirmed.

 

* Void resident ☿ III   16 ATK ; 10 DEF

 

What was standing in front of Papyrus was a high-ranked Gaster follower. The highest in this dungeon. Papyrus was of course, unaware of that. It was now the enemy's turn.

 

The bullets dealt more damage and were harder to dodge. Papyrus lost overall 94 HP.

 

Ignoring the stinging pain, Papyrus decided it was wise to put his magic to use. He summoned his bones and tried his best to deal as much damage as possible, while making them as precise as possible. Thanks to that, he was able to deal enough damage to defeat the monster in one turn.

 

It was at this moment that Papyrus felt something weird.

 

It felt good all of a sudden. It was as if his body itself just got stronger.

 

Instinctively, Papyrus looked up to the dialogue box and immediately understood:

 

* YOU WON!

 

* You earned 50 experience points and 25 gold.

 

* Your LEVEL has increased!

 

Papyrus just "Leveled up".

 

With haste, he opened his "Menu" and looked at the changes:

 

"PAPYRUS"

 

LV 1 ; Lv 6

 

HP 586/745 ; MP 459/579

 

AT  10 (5)          EXP: 0 ; Exp: 320

 

DF  3 (5)          NEXT: 10 ; Next: 180

 

WEAPON: Anime Knife

 

ARMOR: Tough Sweater

 

 

GOLD: 204

 

As expected, Papyrus started to get excited. The thought of getting stronger always made him all giddy. He was so relieved to have finally got passed 700 HP at long last. It always annoyed him that he was so close of reaching it, and yet be unable to. After all his excitement has been emptied out, Papyrus decided to resume his adventure.

 

A few minutes later, he stumbled across a strange door. He wondered for a short while if the room that lied behind this mysterious door was the end, until he opened it and was immediately surprised by its architecture.

 

 What was in front of Papyrus was a corridor blocked by spikes. To the left side of the room was a code bar with numbers on it, and to its right a sign that said: "The password is WInE." Papyrus was bewildered. "How come the password is made of letters when the code bar has numbers? Whoever made this puzzle must be really bad at them. At least they had enough taste to add spikes..."

 

Papyrus examined the code bar to see if he could find a solution in there, but then after pushing every single dial, realized it was in perfectly normal condition. Needless to say, it took him quite a while to finally get the idea of turning the letters into numbers in order to get the password: 3413.

 

After dialing the code, the spikes were removed, and Papyrus proceeded, with a cranky expression.

 

His mood got slightly worse when he encountered another puzzle where he had to push rocks to solve it. Again, the presence of spikes made his opinion about this dungeon's puzzles a little more positive. If he had access to his computer, he would write: "Mercury dungeon(Location: Void)'s puzzles were awful, but the designer's taste for spikes saved it from being complete trash, because they were almost as bad as Hotland's conveyor puzzles. 03/10." Typical of Papyrus.

 

Finally, Papyrus had reached the end.

 

He was already at level 7, but took quite the beating. He was now low on both HP and magic, and as soon as he arrived there...

 

"Oh good! You made it!"

 

Zarla was standing on the left side of the wall, alone. She has been waiting all this time! Papyrus was so happy to see her again, to know that he wasn't alone.

 

"Zarla! I'm so glad to see you! I always knew from the start that you were waiting for me!"

 

"Huh. Can't say I'm surprised, but thanks anyway." answered Zarla.

 

After making sure one last time she was real, Papyrus got his attention away from her and finally noticed what the end of a dungeon looked like.

 

A gigantic door was standing there. Two pillars stood beside it, and on the door's edges was a crest, with Mercury's symbol craved on it. But what stood up the most was an even larger crest, laying on the top of the door, a light blue heart that dominated the whole view.

 

Papyrus just stood there and kept looking at it. He had already gotten so accustomed to dealing with new things, apathy took over his mind during that moment. Apathy took over, right after going through excitement . Finally, he asked:

 

"So, what's that?"

 

What the door had in room mattered little to him, since he knew he was going in anyway.

 

"That, my friend, is the door that leads to the dungeon's guardian."

 

"Gaster has many followers, but only a selected few are close to him. Thus, he decided to make them

the dungeons' guardians. They committed themselves to keep these dungeons from fading away, as they're a key part of his plan to come back to reality. In other words, if a guardian disappears, so does the dungeon."

 

"Wait a second..." interrupted Papyrus. "You said you didn't know where the doors came from when I came here."

 

"I was talking about the symbols that were hanging around. Don't put words in my mouth." replied Zarla, in a rude manner.

 

"So basically, if I beat the guardian, does that mean I cleared the dungeon?"

 

"Exactly. Then, we'll be back in the real world."

 

Papyrus was relieved at the idea of going back home safe, after a day like this. He could always come back tomorrow, for the other one.

 

But before he took a step forward, Papyrus remembered that he was in bad shape.

 

"Hey, Zarla? I need-"

 

"Healing? Way ahead of you."

 

White aura surrounded Zarla for a brief moment, and before he realized it, Papyrus was full of energy again. His HP and MP fully restored, he could finally proceed with confidence.

 

"The first time was free, but next time, it'll cost ya. And it's going to be fifty gold."

 

Instead of grinning, Papyrus remembered:

 

"Oh right! The enemies here drop gold. Is there anything you can sell to me? I came across some healing items, but I don't have that many left..."

 

"Don't worry, I got good stuff for you: The Healing breeze, restores 500 HP for forty gold, and the Magic drop, restores 200 MP, thirty-five gold. Buy as many as you want. Don't spend everything, leave some for tomorrow, okay?"

 

Papyrus quickly checked how much money he had left. Eventually, he bought three of each.

 

"Good, now you're all set to go." Zarla said. "But there's something I need to talk to you about concerning battles with guardians."

 

Papyrus nodded, and decided to give his full attention to her explanation.

 

"Battles with guardians aren't the same as normal battles. There are no turns. You'll constantly be in action, constantly avoid its attacks, and constantly attack. You won't have time to think on how you're going to play your cards, or even think correctly on what you need to do. You're gonna have to rely on your guts for everything. Is that clear?"

 

Papyrus hesitated, then nodded. Another new battle feature. Papyrus always knew that this particular feature wasn't impossible. "If someone's really strong, they can do it." That's how he learned about it from a random kid that was walking home from school.

 

Nevertheless, Papyrus didn't have a choice. He stepped forward...

 

And opened the door.

 

* * *

 

...

 

Darkness.

 

Then little by little, light.

 

That's when Papyrus saw it.

 

An enormous tortoise was standing in the middle of the room.

 

The mighty guardian of the Mercury dungeon was standing in the middle of the room.

 

Its shell had pointy edges, all over it, and wore a light blue helmet with the Mercury crest on it.

 

It noticed Papyrus, but wasn't surprised.

 

"It seems you arrived at last."

 

Papyrus felt scared again. It was talking to him.

 

"A soul, a monster soul. Weak, yet determined."

 

"Is it you?"

 

Papyrus hesitated before replying: "...Yes."

 

The guardian fell silent for a brief moment, then spoke again:

 

"It seems you are the threat Master has warned us about. If you are able to access this place, then it can only mean that you are a threat to our freedom."

 

"Your... freedom?" Papyrus meekly asked.

 

"...It seems you are as ignorant as Master described."

 

"... but it doesn't matter..."

 

" **B e c a u s e  t h i s  p l a c e  w i l l  b e  y o u r  g r a v e.** "

 

Papyrus' soul blinked three times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's september, and school starts. I'm now in junior year (11th grade) and it's gonna be a year loaded with work...   
> Concerning the fanfic's update schedule... it's gonna be completely random! I'm sorry, but I'll have to wite whenever I have free time, and that won't happen very often...   
> And the worst part is that next year's gonna be even worse, because I'll have an extremely important series of final exams waiting for me by the end of that year.  
> I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask what little audience I have for this fanfic to be patient with me. I know it's a lot to ask, considering that some of you legitimately enjoy reading what I write, and I'm sorry in advance.  
> I really enjoy writing this, and I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and will do the same with the future ones.  
> Once again, thank you, for staying patient with me.


	6. Day 1: Monday's trial: Final Part.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BOSS BATTLE 1: GUARDIAN ALPHA α.  
> HP: 1135.  
> ATK: 10  
> DEF: 990/1  
> ELEMENT: ICE.  
> TRAIT: PATIENCE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

The room remained completely dark.

The Guardian stood still, his eyes closed. He looked peaceful, serene.

Until he suddenly opened his eyes, a light-blue glow dominating them, despite the battle screen making his whole body pure white.

That's when music started playing.

That's when Papyrus felt his bones shivering.

Immediately after, The Guardian retired to his shell and started attacking.

Large bullets came out of nowhere, and with a twirling sound, launched themselves towards Papyrus.

Papyrus, who kept his guard up this whole time despite his moment of fear, narrowly dodged them all.

Right after evading the last one, he bashed towards the shell, knife at hand, and plunged it in as hard as possible.

The number "3" in red, alongside a huge green gauge appeared.

Papyrus barely dealt three points of damage. As soon as he saw it, it became clear to him.

Attacking the shell was pointless.

Papyrus backed off as far and as fast as possible. He was clearly in a bind. His attacks were useless, and he couldn't keep dodging forever, as the bullets became faster.

Another wave of bullets came out, Papyrus dodged them all, except for a sharp one that came out from behind him. Papyrus noticed it a second too late, and took 103 points of damage.

Papyrus let out a small cry. It pierced through his whole body, and it felt ice-cold. The stinging pain was agonizing, but not enough to alter his concentration. It was when another wave of bullets came out that Papyrus understood the gravity of his situation.

"Just how long do I have to keep this up?"

"Just how long _can_ I keep this up?"

"..."

"No."

" I can do this. I can..."

"I just need... to think... and _wait_ for an opportunity..."

Just as Papyrus started to calm his senses, the guardian came out of his shell and opened his mouth. Instantly, what looked like pure energy began to gather in, until forming a small ball of light, that kept growing.

Papyrus didn't even wait until any of this had happened yet. Just as the head came out, he closed his eyes, and summoned a storm of bones that bashed right through his unprotected head.

Papyrus heard lament of some sort. He opened his eyes, after he had opened them, giving him a full sight of the number "406" above his mighty foe's HP gauge, of the intensity of the damage his attack had dealt.

But it didn't last long.

Despite the aching wounds Papyrus' bones have caused, they were not enough to stop the colossal tortoise from charging up, until finally, his attack was ready. A massive beam came out of his mouth and hit Papyrus right off. It all happened so fast, he barely had enough time to realize what was happening. Papyrus screamed. The destructive ray of light was so powerful it sent him flying as his body violently hit the end of the screen, worsening his injuries.

Luckily for Papyrus, his powerful foe could not finish him. It was the attack's disadvantage. After firing that beam, the guardian was put in a state of exhaustion. While he was recovering, Papyrus took the opportunity to use one of the healing items he bought from Zarla. As soon as he opened the bottle, its content came out to form a whirlpool surrounding him. The soft wind of the "Healing Breeze" felt amazing, as it eased Papyrus' pain. He looked up to his own HP gauge as it was almost fully filled. He now had 706 HP left.

Energized and well, Papyrus started to prepare a new set of his most destructive bones, dodging the freezing bullets all the while, waiting for the guardian to show himself. No matter how long the tortoise kept aiming his projectiles at him, none of them landed on his target. Papyrus was now aware of the bullets' pattern, even to the point where he can dodge them blindfolded. The guardian realized by now that his bullets were just a waste of magic energy.

He was left with no other choice.

The guardian finally came out of his shelter, and Papyrus waited no other moment. He launched his attack, dealing an even greater amount of damage than before. The creature screeched. He had little HP left, another attack like that and...

...

If that's the case, then all he needs to do is to unleash his _special attack_.

The guardian closed his eyes, and concentrated.

A white, blue-ish glow surrounded his entire body.

Face-to-face towards an unknown situation, Papyrus kept his guard up. He tried throwing a bone at him, but to his ultimate surprise, as soon as it made contact with the guardian (Or to be more precise, the glow surrounding him), it bounced back at him, twice as fast. Papyrus was so surprised, he barely moved from his spot, as the loose bone grazed his face, making him gasp at the sudden pain.

Then suddenly..

The guardian's glow disappeared instantly, and emitted a shockwave.

Then the whole screen started shaking.

It was like an earthquake. Fear took over Papyrus' mind for a moment.

Then it suddenly stopped.

One, then two, then five, then ten, then more than twenty large spears made of ice appeared out of nowhere at the edge of the battlefield.

"This is the end." Muttered the mighty guardian. "The end of your foolish adventure..."

"... and the end of _you_ as well!"

The icicle lances blasted away towards Papyrus.

Papyrus' eye glowed a bright orange light.

Papyrus screamed. Much louder this time.

An ear-piercing sound filled the whole, empty dark room. Its echo left a ringing in the skeleton's ears.

The right eye still glowing, he slowly opened his eyes that widened immediately at the scenery Papyrus was witnessing.  

The excessively large spears surrounding him, inanimate.

The guardian completely silent, his body filled with scars.

A large Gaster Blaster stood near Papyrus, as the magic energy evaporated away into smoke.

The guardian's HP gauge, completely empty.

The number "2103", all in red.

"......."

"So... this is the end..."

Papyrus stood there, silent. He barely realized what he had done.

"Perhaps... it is better this way..."

The guardian started withering away.

"... Thank you."

The guardian disappeared into nothingness. Papyrus could recognize a smile on the tortoise's tired, fading expression.

As his existence rotted away, a small, light-blue heart necklace floated into Papyrus' hands.

Papyrus couldn't help but cry.

Despite the void in his heart after the deed had been done, he cried.

He cried in silence, as tears dropped on the necklace that shined a light full of hope. He remembered his opponent's smile. He looked so tired... Papyrus was starting to feel exhausted too. That fierce battle drained all of his magic.

"I'm just so... so tired..."

Those were his thoughts as he collapsed on the ground.

 

* * *

 

"Hnn... nngh..."

"Oh good, you're starting to wake up."

Papyrus slowly regained consciousness. Slowly opening his eyes, he started getting a hang of the familiar voice talking to him.

"Zarla? Wh... Where am I?"

"Home. Where else?"

Papyrus stood up, his lack of consciousness still made his eyesight a bit blurry for a second. Then he noticed the large pure-white fountain that dominated the room.

"Is that... the teleportation room? Are we back in the real world?"

"Yeah. You passed out after the fight, so I got you back and reanimated you."

"Oh, okay..."

"..."

Papyrus was oddly silent. The memory of the guardian started filling him with negative thoughts.

"Hey Zarla?"

"What is it?"

"They don't die, right? The Void people..."

"We already went through this. They _don't_.  They just disappear."

"But... isn't disappearing the same as dying?"

Zarla sighed, then explained to Papyrus:

"When you fall into the Void, you, your consciousness, your whole being, is split between time and space. It's like you break into a million pieces, and all the same time you don't exist. As if you died without even existing in the first place. Your whole existence becomes a paradox. And like I said, you break into pieces, so if one is gone, there's always an infinite amount of other pieces of you, scattered everywhere in the Void.  Okay?"

"...Mm."

Papyrus opened his mouth, but nothing came out. It then became obvious what he wanted to ask.

"When it happens to someone, it's over. You're trapped in there forever. Even if the world, hell, even the universe is destroyed, they'll remain here. And there's no way to save them."

"How do you know that?!"

Papyrus suddenly raised his voice. His eyes were tearing up.

"How do you know if they can't be saved?! No one ever tried, and that's because no one could remember them! There has to be a way to save them! There's always a way! There's..."

Bad memory.

"... There's always a way to redeem yourself, right?"

Zarla let out a small laugh. This was just too precious.

"Sure, if you say so."

"... You don't seem very convinced."

"Nah, I'm plenty convinced."

A silent atmosphere set itself between the two of them. Papyrus broke the silence with a weirdly innocent question:

"So... what time is it?"

Zarla let out a small exclamation: "Ohhh, thaaat's what I forgot..."

"Again?!" said a surprised Papyrus. "You're even worse than Sans at remembering things! What is it now?!"

"Well, once you enter the Void and come back... the day ends."

"...What?"

"Basically if you got in at eight in the morning, no matter how early you get out, even if it's just instantly after, it's already nighttime. For example now it's... ten o'clock. In the evening."

Papyrus' jaw was left wide open.

"Oh god, everyone must be worried! I have to go back right away! Do I have any scars? I don't look like I just stepped out of a warzone, right?"

"You look just normal. I fully healed you."

"Great! I have to go now before something bad happens!"

But as soon as Papyrus was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the item.

"Oh, right! Before I go, I have something to show you..."

Papyrus pulled away the light-blue heart necklace he received a while ago.

"That's...!" Started Zarla. "Well well, that's quite the treasure you got there... where'd you get it?"

"After the fight, it just appeared out of nowhere and landed directly on my hands..."

Zarla took the artifact and examined it carefully. She looked very satisfied.

"What is it?" Papyrus asked.

"That, my friend, is called a _Patience fragment_. Patience is a human soul trait. Something tells me you'll find similar stuff down there. If you do, send them to me right away. Got it?"

"Okay!" Papyrus said. "Well, I better get going. I'll meet you tomorrow at the same time, okay?"

"Then it's settled. See ya tomorrow, buddy."

"Bye..."

Papyrus stood there immobile for a while, then left for Snowdin. It felt kind of awkward to just say "Goodbye" so casually, considering what just happened, but this was a minor problem next to what he had to deal with at that moment.

As soon as he left the cave, his phone rang. It was the notification sound, telling him of the dozens of phone calls he missed from both Undyne and Sans, alongside many other unknown numbers.

"Oh, crap... This is bad... I have to hurry..."

Papyrus arrived at Snowdin with haste. The first thing he noticed was how quiet and empty the town was. He had a bad feeling about this.

Finally, he made it home.

Home, sweet home.

Papyrus slowly opened the door.

"Sans? I'm home."

"...Papyrus?"

Sans came out of his room. As soon as he made eye-contact with Papyrus, he rushed towards Papyrus.

"Papyrus what the hell?! Where'd you disappear?! Everyone was so worried, the whole town and the royal guards were looking for you all day! Just where the hell were you all this time?!"

"I... I just walked around the whole time, I didn't notice it was already night. I... I'm sorry I made everyone worry so much..."

Sans seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"Then why didn't you answer my phone calls? Heck, why didn't answer anyone's phone calls? I gave everyone at Grillby's your phone number to call you."

"I didn't know you even called! I didn't use my phone at all..."

Sans sighed. "It must've ran out of batteries..."

"...Yeah, you're right. I forgot to charge it."

"I'm gonna let everyone know you're back. You should go to bed for now, it's really late. Especially in your condition..."

"Oh, yeah, right..."

Papyrus went upstairs to his room, then finally said:

"Hey Sans... I'm sorry for making everyone worry so much..."

".... Just don't do it again, okay?"

"... Okay."

"... Goodnight bro."

"Goodnight Sans..."

As soon as Papyrus entered his room, he collapsed on the bed, gazing on the ceiling. Somehow, it felt like he hasn't been there in ages, but everything in it made him feel relaxed.

It's been a whole day since he hasn't been active on _Undernet_ , the Underground's social website. He wondered if his followers were worried about him, even the one that kept sending him lame puns.

The skeleton flag that he and Sans found at the dump. His theory that humans might have descended from skeletons was still unconfirmed.

His favorite book, "Peek-a-boo with Fluffy Bunny", was still on the same spot Sans left it in last time he read it to him. "He probably thought it would be better if I got some rest..."

His robot figurines were still as impeccable as ever, though a little dusty. He'll have to clean them later tomorrow.

Little by little, Papyrus started to feel sleepy. He still couldn't believe so much had happened in one single day. It was all overwhelming.

Frankly, Papyrus was scared.

He was scared of what would happen.

He was scared of what would happen next.

He was scared of what would happen if he died.

If he died before stopping _him_ , what would happen to Sans?

"..."

"He'll listen for sure this time, right?"

Papyrus fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

"..."

"......"

"This is abnormal."

"A living being with a stable existence shouldn't be able to have access to the Void in the first place."

"That woman... No, that _thing_... What is she?"

"Because of her, The guardian alpha is now gone."

"..."

He smiled.

"Interesting."

"I wonder what will be the outcome of this new situation."

"2-P..."

"Despite your incurable stupidity, you were always an interesting test subject."

"Do keep me entertained."

"If you make it 'till the end, I will gladly destroy your precious little _determination_."

 

* * *

 

At the same moment, somewhere far away...

A small, white fluffy dog was happily running in the pitch black Void.

And behind it was Zarla, trailing behind.

"So, what are you going to show me this time, pup?"

The dog barked, then suddenly stopped. It then dug into nothingness and pulled out a small, red object.

Zarla took the brimming object from the dog's mouth.

Right after that, the dog ran away, leaving behind an annoying tune.

"What a weird dog." Zarla said. "Now let's see what you got me this time..."

"..."

"Heh."

"If that's what I think it is, then..."

"...You were involved from the start. Weren't you, little pup?"

 

* * *

 

"..."

"...Do you think I'm dumb?"

"What makes you say that?"

"When he took me today, I asked him why he was doing this..."

"-And he said you were the smart one..."

"And I wouldn't understand even if he told me."

"So I asked him why he kept hurting us, since I don't remember doing anything wrong..."

"And he said something like..."

"...He could do all these things because he was strong, like people needed him to be."

"He'd committed a "Level of Violence" that made him like this..."

"Something like that, and he said you can't go back."

"But... I don't think that's true."

"There has to be a way to go back!"

"There just has to be..."

"..."

"Am I dumb?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this one took me a little while because of school, but I guess you can say I updated on time!  
> This marks the end of Day 1.  
> Day 2 will now begin.


	7. Day 2: Tuesday's Facade: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yesterday was so tiring... I wonder what fate has in reserve for our young hero?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

 

What was that weird dream?

"Dream"... Though Papyrus believed the word "Nightmare" was more fitting.

Papyrus was lying on his bed, eyes half open. He was staring at the ceiling for half an hour thinking about it, blanket completely removed, his consciousness still in a daze.

He couldn't remember everything about it, but every time he did try to remember some of it...

There was a throbbing in his head that hurt, followed by a ringing in his ears that wouldn't shut up.

"It definitely has something to do with my life back then... doesn't it?"

With the headache still present, he looked to his right. His cell phone, plugged into the power outlet, indicated "9:04". It was at this time that Sans would usually wake up.

With a grim look on his face, Papyrus left his bed, took his cell phone, and left his room with heavy steps.

As he expected, Sans was sitting on the couch watching T.V.

"Good morning bro." he said, as soon as Papyrus walked out of his bedroom.

"... Good morning Sans." Papyrus lazily replied.

"... You don't look like you slept well. You sure you should be awake this early?"

Papyrus frowned a little. He thought his tired expression gave it away, but little did he know, his brother was aware of his night terrors long before he himself woke up. He didn't consider this possibility, despite having noticed Sans looking even more sleepy than him.

With that observation in hand, he replied: "What about you? You look even sleepier."

Sans casually shrugged, then replied back with a grin that immediately irritated his tall younger brother: "Well Papyrus, you know I'm always... bone tired."

Papyrus did not reply back. Unless a silent treatment, followed by an unimpressed facial expression, can be considered one.

"... I'll go eat breakfast. I suppose you'll go to Grillby's again, aren't you?"

"Yep. After that I'll head to my sentry station. The Waterfall one."

"Okay, be sure to head to your other stations as well after lunch."

"Sure..."

Sans wanted to say something, but refrained from doing so. In the end, he finally said:

"I'll check for you at noon, so if you're going anywhere, at least bring your cell with you."

Papyrus flinched. It was at this moment that he knew the day won't end well for him.

"Of course! I don't want to worry everyone again, like last night." he said, with a bright, innocent smile.

Papyrus was a bad liar, but technically he wasn't actually lying. He was truly upset at himself for making everyone in town look for him all afternoon.

Sans smiled back. He felt relieved. "Heh, alright then. I'm off."

The moment he finished his sentence, Papyrus started to feel empty. He replied to his brother before the emptiness consumed him: "Don't forget to recalibrate your puzzles!"

"Alright, alright... I won't...".

Sans' voice faded away as he closed the door behind him.

Now that the lack of emotion had possessed his mind, Papyrus started to see monochrome. For a brief moment, he truly felt alone.

And defenseless.

A sudden chill ran through his spine, like that feeling someone gets when they're being watched.

Despite that, he slowly walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. He wasn't in the mood for cooking, so spaghetti was out. Eating Sans' food, noted Papyrus, would probably have dire consequences. Thus the bag of chips was cheaply denied. He then finally noticed a lone cup of noodles, sitting at the back of the fridge. Papyrus took it and looked at it with disgust. He remembered the last time he ate this "Unhealthy babies' cartoons comestible".

He then suddenly had an enlightenment. He took the chopsticks and started eating the noodles directly without even adding boiled water.

...

They're better dry.

Despite the noodles making him feel uncomfortable, Papyrus was satisfied. Slowly, he turned to the sink and looked at his reflection in the mirror.

God, did he look disgustingly miserable.

And god, did he hate it.

He hated it so much, the feeling of self-loathing in his heart was unbearable. It kept piling up and piling up...

Until all of a sudden, all of this turned the young monster's feelings around.

He felt... invigorated.

The image on the suspended glass was so unsightly to him, it reminded him of who he really was.

He was "The Great Papyrus", wasn't he? Not...

... not...

Papyrus shook his head, then looked at the mirror one more time, his eyes ablaze by an unshaken will.

He was ready to embrace the truth, no matter how painful it was.

"My name is Papyrus. Not 2-P. I am a future member of the royal guard, and I am _not_ your guinea pig."

He spat it all out in a very calm, yet imposing tone.

He knew he was being heard.

He also knew exactly who was listening to him.

Closing his eyes, he smiled. It was a serious smile, and little by little, it became a cheerful expression.

"Everything will be okay." he said, in a tender voice he was definitely sure he had used before. "I'm not done with getting stronger yet. I still have a long way ahead of me, and I'm not planning on giving up right at the start."

Finally, he felt ready. He took his keys and his cell phone, and went for the door.

Suddenly, Papyrus stopped. After a few seconds, he realized he forgot to bring his wallet.

 In an oddly convenient matter, he had also remembered the existence of his personal savings, hidden in a small box in the second drawer, the one holding his robot figurines. He kept it hidden because of a six-month old nightmare he had, in which involved his brother stealing his money to buy a five-liter bottle of ketchup. He remembered this dream perfectly, since he had spent the following week looking at Sans in the most suspicious way possible. Of course, everyone had noticed him. Even five months later, when he started saving money, the dream still tormented him.

Moving on, he went upstairs to his room and had found the box. Last time Papyrus checked, it contained 653 gold. Papyrus was really hesitant in taking all this money. He really wanted to purchase that new puzzle he found on sale, the one that has an electric maze, difficulty level 4.

Regardless, Papyrus' safety was worth more than that. And he was perfectly aware of the fact that Zarla wouldn't spare a single piece of gold from him. He took the money, then headed downstairs.

And thus, he stepped out of his residence and locked the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

On his way to the cave, Papyrus stopped in front of "Grillby's" and took a glimpse of what was inside the bar.

As unusual as it looked like, the royal guards that occupied the set of tables on the left were missing. The thought of the epidemic came to him, then he understood the reason behind the lack of life inside the establishment. The usual customers were still here, no big surprise, but the mood was still dark.

And then there was Sans.

Sans, sitting on the counter, sucking dry a bottle of ketchup  despite his teeth showing a never-ending smile, completely blocking it. This was one way of showing the convenience of being a skeleton made of magic.

It seemed like he and Grillby were having a conversation, but the window glass prevented the younger brother from eavesdropping.

Suddenly, Sans turned around and his gaze met Papyrus'. His permanent grin enlarged itself as he waved at his sibling.

In a lazy manner, he grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. Papyrus could distinguish disgusting tomato sauce stains on his cellular, which were obviously caused by the unclean jacket he was wearing all the time. Just like the rest of his clothes.

Seconds later, Papyrus' cell phone rang. A message appeared, saying: "don't come late, ok?"

"How can you be lazy to the point of not even properly starting a conversation?" thought Papyrus, who took his own cell phone as well and typed, in Papyrus font, all capital letters:

"DON'T WORRY. I'LL TRY TO COME BACK HOME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"

The message was sent, then seen. Sans looked relieved. He then replied:

"ok, see ya later bro."

"SEE YOU SOON AS WELL."

Papyrus clenched his free fist. He hated lying like this, but it's not like he had a choice.

He pressed forward, his heart tightened by guilt. Little did he know, a pleasant surprise waited for him ahead of town: As soon as he passed the Library, all of the townsfolk he came across greeted him with warmth, and mentioned how happy they were to see Papyrus safe and healthy again, in addition to attempts made by children to cheer him up for the loss of his eye. Papyrus was astonished at how much everyone truly cared about him.

Despite leaving the crowd behind with only a few "Thank you" s, Papyrus truly felt grateful towards everyone for their kindness. Although...

He would have loved to go see his best friend and tell him that he was fine, since it had been so long since they last spoke, but he was too much in a hurry to reassure even Undyne of his welfare.

He resumed his course, his heart still pulsing with the willpower of a thousand.

Determined to end everything before another soul is broken.

 

* * *

  

Finally, Papyrus reached his destination.

He entered the cave, and found Zarla standing in front of the great door. She apparently had been waiting for him for a while.

"Oh, there you are. I was starting to wonder whether yesterday's talk was just a joke."

Papyrus was unshaken by such a blatant comment, but was still slightly offended, as he was well known for keeping his word until the end.

"Hey! You must've known I wouldn't be able to let something this big slide! Especially since I survived without any great difficulties last time..."

 Zarla smiled and Papyrus noticed it. He was being played.

"Alright, I believe you." she said with an irritating smile. "So, ready to go? You look pretty pumped."

"I feel ready for anything. Leave everything to me!" proudly said Papyrus.

"Heh. If you say so, then I can trust you." she said. This time her smile was a bit more gentle. "Let's go inside, shall we?"

The giant door opened, and the two entered the fountain room. Again, Papyrus was amazed by the beautiful scenery that was laid before him. The bright white color dominating the room was blinding, yet exquisite.

But the greatest piece of all was the fountain.

Just who could believe such a monument of peace led to a world of darkness and hatred for the living?

"Ready?" asked Zarla. "It's just like last time. Put your hand on the fountain and concentrate."

Papyrus executed her command flawlessly and felt a drowsy pain, similar to yesterday's feel.

In a split second, he had arrived in "Void Core", the room with the dungeons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been so long since I updated... Nearly two months. School has been a bit frightnening, since I was constantly shown proof that I needed to study even harder. I really can't tell when will the next update be. It seems we will be moving from monthly updates to random ones.  
> I want to apologize to those who actually enjoy reading my story. It honestly seems like this fanfiction, like many other things in my radius of interests, should be considered the least of my worries, as I must do my best to study this year and next year with 10 times the effort. Not that this story will continue all the way to 2018 (Maybe).  
> All I know is, I really enjoy creating and sharing my story, as it's my first experience ever in both terms of writing and posting works.  
> Thank you, small audience, for reading this chapter.


	8. Day 2: Tuesday's Facade: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Papyrus enters once again the forbidden relm. Here he will notice that his past actions yesterday had consequences...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

Papyrus opened his eyes.

The wooden platform which formed the Void Core still felt eerie and cold on his sun-red boots. Out of the blue, he recalled seeing the same ground structure in a history book he once borrowed from the Library.

Is this what the surface world felt like? Cold and hostile?

Barely an instant had passed since his arrival and the looming darkness which made the Void was already starting to get to him. Like when you rediscover an awful feeling that you were so eager to erase from your memory.

"... Of course not." he shook his head, his resolve still intact.

The ever-lasting pitch-black scenery that was given to Papyrus was enticing. The unknown sources of light that made everything visible remained as mysterious as ever, and the white small pillars guarded well Void Core's standing ground. Instinctively, he turned around to face the seven mighty doors.

The first change had occurred.

The Mercury door, which was previously standing on the bottom left of the platform, was completely demolished. He looked at the remains, astonished. The emblem holding the planet's symbol was resting on top of the crumbling rocks. It was pitch black.

Papyrus approached the residues for further inspection, then stopped when he suddenly felt something that made a tingling sound under his left shoe. Lifting it upwards, he was able to look at what he had stepped on.

It was a locket of some sort. Just like the fallen dungeon's symbol, it was pitch black. To his surprise, it  crumbled under the weight of his fingers, turning into ash.

Confused, he looked over the other doors, and saw that they were intact. His eyes stopped at the greatest door of them all: Despair door. Just like yesterday, it emitted an essence of great doom and feebleness the young skeleton was a coward to. Its structure was perfectly neat.

... Or so he thought. If he remembered correctly, there were six locks surrounding  the handles and the door itself, tied to solid chains.

Five locks stood before Papyrus.

He was right yesterday, claiming a connection between the other doors and the locks.

The sixth missing one was no more, as it was already brought to dust by the young adventurer's ignorance. The chains that united it with the others were still falling apart before Papyrus' very eyes, as they snapped in two when they hit the ground.

"Surprised?" a voice echoed from behind him.

Zarla was just standing right next to the spot where Papyrus landed. She seemed aware of what happened.

"You see now how there are five locks now instead of five. It's just like I said yesterday: six locks, six doors. Now there are five locks and five doors."

"So... every time I finish a dungeon, it... gets destroyed? Then one of the locks gets off?"

"Exactly. It's a really simple mechanism. Kind of a letdown for someone who was renown genius."

"Really..."

Papyrus frowned at her sentence. Somehow he knew the reason why it wasn't very difficult. Two reasons, actually.

"Why waste your time thinking of a mastermind plan when you're dealing with a weak idiot? Just put some strong guards and you'll be fine..." he muttered, almost silently. "Well I'll teach him to not look down on us!" he said, this time with a normal voice, added his usual confident smile.

Zarla smirked. "Yeah, you're right.'

His confidence regained, he asked: "So... which door now? The red one?" then he pointed towards the door that stood right next to the Mercury door.

"Yup, right that one." she confirmed.

The Mars door.

The Mars door was exactly the same size as its neighbor, but everything else was different. Instead of blue, it was painted in an aggressive shade red. It's emblem symbolized the planet it represented, just like all its peers. The atmosphere surrounding it was an inch more hostile than in the Mercury door. Papyrus felt like a cautious approach wouldn't hurt, but at the same time was confident that it wouldn't be much trouble in his current strength.

"I should start with this one, right?"

"Yeah, Mars door. You probably already guessed that enemies only get tougher in each door, but I shouldn't worry much since this dungeon isn't really the definition of dangerous. You should be alright, especially with _this_."

At those words, Zarla pulled out of her pocket the necklace.

It was excessively light, both string and stone. The stone in question was glowing bright red.

"What... is that?" he asked.

"You have healing spells, right?"

Papyrus nodded.

"Guessed so. You must have a lot of potential with stuff like that. Too bad you can't heal yourself, right? Well, this thing is gonna solve your little problem."

"What do you mean?"

"As you wear this necklace on, you can heal your own wounds using your own spells. I know monsters can't heal themselves, so I thought it was a good idea to go look for something like that."

Papyrus was amazed. He looked at it with glowing eyes, like a child about to receive a gift. He looked like his usual self on a normal day.

"It's mine? Really? How much is it?"

"Oh it's free. I'm not gonna make you pay for something you absolutely need."

"Wowie! Thanks a lot! I can't wait to try it out!"

T he young skeleton could not contain his excitement, although a bit exaggerating. He received it from his partner's hands and gently put it on his neck.

A calming warmth overflowed all over his body. The shard generating this power glowed as well. He closed his eyes to fully experience this god-like feeling.

He was the master of himself.

It was like his very soul was at the tip of his fingers. The stone's light kept getting stronger, until it reached throughout Papyrus' being.

Then it stopped.

Papyrus gained a new ability.

"Wow, that was... pretty unique." he said, regaining his composure.

"Yeah, I saw it. You know how to patch yourself up now, right?"

"Yes, absolutely sure."

Papyrus closed his fists. The necklace was now directly tied to his soul.

"I'm ready to go." he said, with a determined look.

Zarla stopped him with a sign. "Now hold up a sec. You can't consider going right now without buying my new stuff."

"Your.. new stuff?"

"I didn't tell you, did I? I have new and better merch every day. It only makes sense, since you will encounter new and stronger enemies each passing day."

"... Funny enough, I sort of knew you were going to come up with a way to get money from me."

"Great, that means you brought some." she responded gaily.

Papyrus replied with the very same expression he used when Sans made his corny joke that morning, added with a very deep sigh this time that both the latter and Zarla would find absolutely exquisite.   

"I brought with me a lot of gold this time... Over 650 G."

"Awesome, you can afford some good stuff with all that." she said, before handing over him a list of the things she had in sale. The paper listed the following:

* Ninja Gloves ("ATK : 12. A pair of gloves with magic claws on it. Allows you to attack twice.") : 350 G

* Magician's Cloak ("DEF: 12. A cloak that lets out a mysterious aura.") : 300 G

* Antidote ("A normal medicine. Cures poison.") : 30 G

* Healing Breeze (" A small flask containing some wind infused with curative magic. Restores 500 HP") : 40 G

* Magic Drop ("A small drop of pure magic essence. Restores 200 MP"): 35 G

Papyrus examined the list carefully, then stopped at the sight of "Antidote".

"Am I gonna need... antidotes... to get through this?

"In this dungeon, it's possible you'll come across some enemies that can... _poison_ you. Antidotes are made to get rid of that."

Papyrus flinched at Zarla's testimony.

"Hey uh... how do you know so much about all the opponents inside?"

A cheery smile can be distinguished behind her mask.

"I don't. I just know of the Void residents."

"Oh, right. Obviously..." resumed the skeleton.

A small silence was set between the two characters. Papyrus was looking a little apologetic.

"Are you going to buy something or what?"

"Oh, sorry. Yeah I will..."

Papyrus bought and equipped the new weapon and piece of armor, then bought two antidotes with what he had left of gold from yesterday's splurging.

"I see you don't have much gold left." Zarla said. "Y'know what, I'll do an act of good faith and buy your old weapons for half the price."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Sure, of course." she replied with a haughty expression. "It wouldn't do much good to keep old useless stuff, right? I'll buy you both the "Anime Knife" and the "Tough Sweater" for 75 G. Well?"

Papyrus looked at his old gear. 75 pieces of gold wasn't much, but it was still a better option than keeping useless stuff.

"Alright, deal."  he said, handing over his old gear to her.

(Here's a possibly funny fact that readers with great perception might be asking themselves about. Since the beginning of Papyrus' journey, Zarla supported him by selling various merchandise. The question is: Where did she put her supplies? Every time Papyrus came across her, she never carried anything, or gave the slightest impression of being a merchant. No enormous bag of weapons or gold, nothing. Just a plain... person... standing in front of our favorite once-in-a-lifetime protagonist. Every time she gave Papyrus something, she pulled it out of her back pocket, no matter the item's volume. It is therefore heavily implied that she has complete and absolute control over the Void. That, or the fact that she has magical pants that makes items appear out of nowhere. Whatever theory the readers have to offer is acceptable.)

(Let's now resume the story.)

As the gold clinks at his fingers, Papyrus' eyes linger the door he's about to enter. All preparations were done. It was to go.

"I think it's time I went in there."

"You're right. We wasted enough time as it is."

Papyrus pressed forward and put his hand on the doorknob.

"Good luck!"

With these words of encouragement, he gathered his will and opened the door.

* ENTERING MARS DUNGEON.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey would you look at that: 4 months late into writing. You know the drill: School's a mess, can't concentrate, this chapter probs sucks, etc, thanks for reading, enjoy it while it lasts o dying fandom.  
> But seriously, thank you for keeping up with 4 months of delay ^^;


	9. Day 2: Tuesday's Facade: Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to head to the next dungeon. Papyrus wonders what challenges he'll meet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction is inspired by the Undertale AU comic series "Hand plates" by the tumblr artist, zarla-s. The character that shares their name in Chapter 3 is not representative of the AU's creator in any way.

Mars Dungeon.

Papyrus' senses started to be more alert of the environment. He was once again in a dangerous place with no idea what to expect. Though if there was one thing he was definitely ready for, it was fighting.

He clenched his fists, now armed with the Ninja Gloves. The blade of its claws were sharp, but Papyrus had little experience with fist-to-fist combat, as he grew a distinct preference for the lance much like Undyne and king Asgore.

At first glance, Mars Dungeon looked like an actual, real-life dungeon seen in video games: Brick walls, rooms lighted by simple torches...

... An amazingly high room temperature?

Papyrus suddenly found himself sweating a little. He noticed that ever since he appeared, he felt the lukewarm sensation of hot air attempting to raise his body temperature. The room itself was a little red, and our young monster quickly started to feel discomfort.

He walked a few steps forward until something unusual caught his glance towards the roof. Papyrus focused his eyes until he could see them, hanging from the roof: Pale-colored figures, specifically bats of some sorts, sleeping. The animal-shaped enemies didn't notice him yet, so Papyrus steadied himself in a combat posture and seized the opportunity to strike.

* Preemptive strike!

* 3 Void Residents ♂ I appeared.

Papyrus used the upper-hand to deal a magnificent strike to one of his enemies, defeating it instantly. Two remained.

The bats were flying uncontrollably fast, so dodging all of their attacks was near impossible. Papyrus got hit more than once, but didn't feel much pain from the injuries.

But something went wrong.

Out of the blue, his soul changed color from pure white to pale green, nauseous pain suddenly flew through his entire body, as he started to tremble violently.

As soon as his turn started, he screeched as the pain became more intense, right before losing a good chunk of HP.

He had been poisoned.

 Papyrus felt like his body was leaving him, resulting in his attack, defense, accuracy and evasion to be lowered. Luckily, thanks to Zarla's advice, he was able to treat the poison efficiently, but at the cost of a turn. His enemies were, as one would say, "persistent little bastards".

Fortunately these residents were quite frail, so much that poison was their only effective weapon. The battle didn't last too long.

* YOU WON!

* You earned 75 experience points and 15 gold.

* Your LEVEL has increased!

* Your spell has been upgraded!

Spell upgraded?

Papyrus was back in the suffocating atmosphere. The first thing he did was to investigate the meaning of this message he had never seen before by checking his STAT menu.

"PAPYRUS"

LV 1; Lv 11

HP 997/1274 ; MP 1400/1558

ATK 23 (12)      EXP:0 ; Exp: 3147

DEF 15 (12)      NEXT:0 ; Next: 1055

WEAPON: Ninja Gloves

ARMOR: Magician's Cloak

SPELLS:  * Bones LV 2

               * G.Blaster LV 2

               * Blue Atk LV 1

               * Heal LV 2      

Last time he checked, Papyrus' G. Blaster spell was at Level 1.

"Then does that mean..."

Just like his body, his spells were getting stronger too.

Papyrus' optimism started to show again. He wanted to show it off with a practice test, but time is fleeting, and so is his stamina.

"It's only going to get harder from here on out. Getting stronger is the only way for me to survive this."

"Time to get serious."

With his resolve intact, he kept moving forward...

 

... until he reached a strange-looking door.

As soon as he stepped in...

The ground underneath was melting.

It's intense fire burned off some of his shoe.

Papyrus was taken by surprise. The vast area in front of him was red with the unbearable heat as the ground and the walls barely hold on to it. It was like looking at an oven from the inside while it's running.

Getting inside would be suicide.

But there was nowhere else to go but forward.

What a frightening situation for Papyrus to be in. First poison now this? Who wouldn't be scared to face one ordeal after the other?

But...

There was nowhere else to go but forward.

Still scared, he took the first step inside the hellhole in front of him.

The first painful step of a long, long way before the next room.

As soon as he felt the pain, he dashed towards the exit. The air felt so heavy, and the ground so hot it burned.

"It's... so painful... It hurts..." He meekly spat out, desperately running for his life. The temperature was so high, it was close to hell. Even breathing was near impossible.

Every second inside was horribly painful to him.

Every second inside was killing him.

Every second inside cost him roughly 50 HP.

Sweating bullets at an alarming rate, Papyrus didn't stop. It was almost like he lost his mind to the pain as he recklessly sprints for safety, then he noticed something.

He realized he was inside a room filled with enemies.

Big, tough looking Void Residents came out.

No time to fight. Keep running.

Papyrus' soul blinked three times.

* 2 Void Residents ♂ II appeared.

* MERCY

* Escape

* Ran away.

HP: 797

* 3 Void Residents ♂ appeared.

* FIGHT

* Magic

* G.Blaster LV 2

* YOU WON!

* You gained 350 Experience points and 400 Gold.

HP: 647

Getting slower.

HP: 497

Getting weaker.

HP: 347

 Getting blurry eyesight.

* You gained 412 Experience points and 350 Gold.

HP: 153

Fainting.

HP: 53

Dying.

HP: 3

"PLEASE DON'T DIE!!!"

HP: 3

He was out.

* Heal LV 2

HP: 1003

He was safe.

Papyrus fell on his knees. He was still in shock.

Barely ten minutes had passed and he was already this close to die.

Not once in his life did he ever dream his HP would ever fall so low.

He still kept hanging on what he felt at that moment. Hanging on that horrible feeling to remind him of how dangerous this world was.

"PAPYRUS"

His whole being was about to burst into a million pieces.

Never again.

He was so exhausted he landed on all-fours on the ground, letting out a few tears. It was the second scariest event that had occurred ever since he started venturing in the Void.

The first being, naturally, his encounter with the first boss.

Any normal monster would crawl somewhere and die after going through all of this. But not our hero.

This was only the second dungeon, he basically just started. Giving up wasn't acceptable.

Failure wasn't an option.

"I... need to get moving... No time to waste..."

After recovering some of his energy, he stood up and started walking down the path laid before him on the floor.

Papyrus regained some of his composure as he moved on. The enemies weren't a deadly threat, and the puzzles weren't difficult.

Until he stumbled upon this one.

Twenty minutes had passed since his arrival, and about twelve rooms were explored. Once Papyrus got inside the location of the puzzle, there were many hints inside that indicated it was unique.

The most blunt one being that there was a Void Resident inside, waiting for him.

"Hi, there. I've been waiting for you."

Papyrus was startled. He never expected one of them to speak to him.

"Congratulations on making it this far. Frankly, I was surprised to hear you didn't die from our special death room a while back."

Papyrus kept his guard up all this time. He talked like he was about to attack him, but seemed peaceful.

The resident in question was a small-sized monster with big eyes. Much like his comrades, he was tainted grey, but his distinctive feature is that he didn't have any. He looked like a "neutral" character with only a head, a torso, two arms and two legs that anyone can draw on a piece of paper.

Even his threatening smile was a little bland.

"What's the matter? I know you must be scared, considering you're in enemy territory, but you've got more guts than you give off."

He looked at Papyrus for a little while, then his smile got arrogant.

"Hey now, what's wrong? I don't bite. Or at least that's not my job.  I'm just here to give you the puzzle and let you off."

Papyrus hesitantly answered:

"Alright... What is it?"

"Do you see these levers over there?"

Right next to the Void Resident were four levels, labeled from "A" to "D", left to right in front of Papyrus.

"The game's simple: I'm going to ask you multiple-choice questions that you have to answer in a limited amount of time. Answer them all and you get to pass through. Answering everything correctly isn't mandatory, but I suggest you avoid making mistakes. Was I clear?"

Papyrus nodded. "I see, it's basically a quiz. Bring it on!" he thought to himself.

"Now, get ready for:"

* QUESTION 1:

Who was the first royal scientist during the reign of King Asgore?

A: Alphys

B: W.D Gaster

C: Subject 1-S

D: Undyne.

"What kind of question is that? Of course it's Alphy-"

Was it really her though?

"Huh? Why am I hesitating? There's no one smarter than Dr.Alphys. Look at all the amazing stuff she did."

"But... now that I think about it..."

What was he doing after leaving the lab, exactly?

Who made The Core in Hotland, exactly?

"..."

"......"

".........."

"Well, your answer? You're running out of time."

"U-um... Answer... B..."

Green light streamed out of the ground.

"Correct! The only true scientist the world needs is the great Wing Dings Gaster!"

The resident had an awful grin on his face that scared Papyrus a little.

He also didn't really appreciate his brother being called "1-S".

"Let's keep going with:"

* QUESTION 2:

Two trains, Train A and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other.

 Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5mph towards Station A.

 If both trains departed at 10:00AM and it's now 10:08, how much longer until both trains pass each other?

A: 32.049 minutes.

B: 32.058 minutes.

C: 16.232 minutes.

D: Why should I care? No one uses trains.

"You have 30 seconds."

"... Please give me 30 minutes. It's still too early for me to go to college."

"27 seconds."

"Um... okay... So trains leave at 10 AM at a different speed... Eight minutes have passed so they should meet up at......."

"20 seconds."

"Crap. I have no idea how to go through this question." Papyrus thought. "At this rate I might as well leave it to luck. It's obviously either A or B, so..."

"10 seconds. Please give an answer."

"Nonononononononononononono...."

 "A!! No B!"

"You take B as your final answer?"

"Yes!!"

Papyrus was strangely hyped up about this.

"..."

"Correct!"

"Oh thank god! I was just guessing."

"Of course you were. Now for the next question:"

* QUESTION 3:

What's the color of the sky?

A: Blue and white

B: Orange and red

C: Black and white

D: Dark blue

"How should I know?! And by the way, aren't all these answers true?"

"Just give an answer and let me go home."

"Wha-?!"

Papyrus was clearly surprised by the sudden change of tone the Void Resident in front of him was having.

"W-well, in that case, A, maybe?."

"Correct. Next question:"

"Seriously, what's wrong with you, changing character all of a sudden?"

* QUESTION 4:

What are your friends' favorite food?

A: Hot dogs

B: Spaghetti

C: Dry noodles

D: Varies too much

Papyrus suddenly looked a lot confident.

"Heh. I don't mean to brag too much, but it's quite obvious what everyone likes. Answer B!"

This time. Red light streams out instead of green.

"Bzzzzt! Wrooong! And your punishment will be..."

The Void Resident pulled the "B" lever. Right after that, Papyrus was suddenly set on fire, like someone just casted a fire spell on him. It only lasted a second, but it hurt quite a lot. He lost 341 HP.

"WAUUUGH!"

"Thank you for participating in this lovely puzzle. I hope to see you again."

And just like that, Papyrus was sent to the next room.

"Ow..."

"What was that all about?"

 

* * *

 

 

Papyrus was tired.

Thirty minutes had passed, and he was about to fall from all the endless walking, fighting, and the heat made his condition worse, to the point where he would lose 1 or 2 HP every now and then. There weren't as many treasure chests as last time, but they contained useful sundries that kept Papyrus on his feet. He leveled up twice, so at least he gained some much needed strength to face the boss.

After all his efforts, he finally reached the end.

"Well, look who's about to drop."

Zarla was right there, ready to greet him. Finally, he could catch his breath and heal up.

"Well, who are you holding up? Harder than last time, right?"

"Definitely... It was a lot scarier too..."

"Well, now's not the time to take it easy, because the dungeon's boss is just up ahead."

She was right. The huge door that stood in front of Papyrus was quite intimidating. It had an emblem on top of it with a huge flame drawn on it.

"I'll heal you like last time, but it will cost you 50 G. Don't give me that look, you need to get used to difficulty. I'll sell you good stuff too."

Despite all the frightening situations he went through, Papyrus wasn't starting to lose his courage. He got rid of his physical and mental fatigue, and bought recovery items.

As he was heading towards the door, he took a deep breath and looked back to his friend, who said:

"Getting scared? Don't worry, you got a lot stronger since you started. I'd say you're strong enough to beat it without too much risk."

"It's okay, you can do it."

Hearing those words brought back all of his bravery.

Without holding anything back, he opened the door.

 

* * *

 

 

A huge room, a little bigger than the one he fought in yesterday.

"Heh. Look who finally decided to show up!"

It was the boss' voice.

Appeared in front of Papyrus was a bulky-looking giant made of fire. He oddly resembled the bartender he was familiar with, but much bigger and much more terrifying.

 "Who the hell you think you are, walking around beating up _my_ underlings like you own the place?"

"I... I have to fight! If I don't, he'll just keep killing everyone! I won't lose, no matter what!"

He laughs hysterically. "You? A small piece of trash like you can't do anything!"

"I ' L L  B U R N  Y O U  T O   A S H ! "

Papyrus' soul blinked three times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summer vacation here, so now I'll be able to post more often. I hope I'll get to tackle more chapters to get the story done.


End file.
